In a recent filing in Nonprecedential Opinion, No. 26-6398, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued a nonprecedential disposition that is noteworthy less for creating new doctrine than for what it signals about appellate practice in the circuit. Because the opinion is expressly designated as nonprecedential, it does not bind future panels in the same way…
Continue Reading Fourth Circuit Issues Nonprecedential Disposition in Appeal No. 26-6398

The Eleventh Circuit’s October 23, 2026 filing in Opinion, No. 26-10485, is notable less for a splashy merits ruling than for what it signals about appellate practice: the court’s treatment of a matter formally captioned only as an “Opinion” underscores how closely practitioners need to read docketed appellate dispositions for clues about jurisdiction, precedential status, and procedural posture.

Based…
Continue Reading Eleventh Circuit Clarifies Appellate Jurisdiction and Opinion Designation in No. 26-10485

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Earlier in my legal career, I was on a legal team that provided pro bono representation to a client who had grown up in foster care and been subjected to horrific abuse. (Certain details pertaining to the representation are being withheld to preserve confidentiality.)
During our calls to discuss case strategy, we often advised the client of…
Continue Reading How a Client’s Drawing Made Me Rethink the Value of Legal Services

There’s a lot of talk these days about what AI can do. Draft briefs. Review documents. Analyze contracts. Conduct research. Brainstorm ideas. Solve problems. And I’d be the first to say, AI can do a lot. But there’s something AI can’t give you. A mindset.The determination to find a way to solve your client’s problem, no matter how difficult it…
Continue Reading The Overhead That Wouldn’t Close: A Lesson in Problem Solving

A major federal public-corruption prosecution in Chicago may be heading toward negotiated resolutions instead of a retrial. Lawyers for former Commonwealth Edison CEO Anne Pramaggiore and longtime lobbyist Michael McClain reportedly told the court they are discussing plea deals with prosecutors, a notable turn in one of Illinois’ most closely watched criminal cases tied to former House Speaker Michael Madigan.
Continue Reading ComEd Bribery Retrial May Give Way to Plea Deals in Key Illinois Corruption Case

At its annual Everlaw Summit in San Francisco this week, the e-discovery company Everlaw unveiled Omni, an agentic AI investigation suite that orchestrates the full range of the company’s tools to answer questions about a case.The company also launched Workflows, a drag-and-drop tool for automating complex document reviews, and Everlaw for Word, a Word add-in that links Bates citations back…
Continue Reading At Its Annual Summit, Everlaw Unveils Omni, Its Agentic AI Suite, But CEO Says Customers Are Even More Excited About Opening Its Platform to Other AI Tools

NetDocuments CEO Josh Baxter believes the document management system is becoming something even greater — a law firm’s organizational intelligence layer. As lawyers increasingly do their work inside AI tools such as Claude, Harvey, Legora and ChatGPT, Baxter says NetDocuments’ job is to build and preserve the firm’s context, then make it accessible through whatever interface the user chooses. He…
Continue Reading LawNext Podcast: NetDocs CEO Josh Baxter on Why the DMS is Becoming the Law Firm’s ‘Intelligence Layer’

Got conferences? If so, then probably one or more of Legaltech Week’s regular panelists has been there in the last couple weeks — from ClioCon in Boston to the Everlaw Summit in San Francisco to NetDocuments Inspire in Orland0 and some smaller ones along the way — and we will be sharing our reports and takeaways live today at 3…
Continue Reading Today on Legaltech Week: Conference Round-Up – Reports from ClioCon, Everlaw and NetDocs – Plus Law360’s Rachel Rippetoe Sits In

A Fourth Circuit oral argument this week highlighted a central post-Dobbs question: when the FDA has approved a drug and set conditions for its use, how much further can a state go? In the challenge to North Carolina’s restrictions on mifepristone, at least one judge appeared skeptical of the physician-plaintiff’s position, pressing the idea that federal drug regulation may…
Continue Reading Fourth Circuit Tests the Limits of State Mifepristone Rules

Utah has raised the stakes in the ongoing clash over prediction markets, filing felony criminal charges against Kalshi and two of its top executives, CEO Tarek Mansour and COO Luana Lopes Lara. The state alleges the company’s contracts violate Utah’s anti-gambling laws, marking a sharp escalation from the civil and administrative actions that have defined most of the state-level pushback…
Continue Reading Utah Brings Felony Gambling Charges Against Kalshi in Escalation of Prediction-Market Fight